The Inquisitor Review (Gughunter)
At this writing I have 3.2 hours on record -- effectively 2.2 since I spent the first hour screwing up. You can miss some tutorial interactions by advancing the plot too soon, so when you get to a shrine that mentions it's a good place to visit some weirder place, back off unless you don't mind missing those side tasks. So, writing with a weighty 2 hours and 12 minutes under my belt, I can say: so far, I love this game.
I have to warn you it's not for everyone though... the few professional reviews that are out there will testify to that, though they aren't entirely negative. You have to like a slow burn, and (so far at least) a lot more looking around than fighting, which is fine for me if the looking around is interesting, which it is. There will be QTEs and stealth segments, too, which I generally detest -- but here they're easy even for a chump like me (again, so far).
Here, then, are some early impressions. First, unlike the Witcher series, the Polish dark fantasy books that inspired this game (guess there must be something good in the water over there) have unfortunately not yet been published in English -- but the setting is a hoot. The game takes place in 1533, exactly 1500 years by Church reckoning after Christ's resurrection in our timeline, or after His terrible vengeance in this game's.
I know this setting offends some people -- it's a disrespectful, blasphemous mockery, they believe, and while I can understand their reaction, I really don't get the impression that this story is arguing the 16th century would have been so much better if Christianity didn't preach forgiveness and mercy and love and all. That said, the vengeful world this alternate Christ created still behaves by most of the same rules as ours nominally does; stealing, murder, and other offenses are still crimes. It's kind of like the Addams Family: they're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky, and yet aside from the sinister trappings they mostly behave the same as any other civilized people. Long story short, unless you're looking to take offense you probably won't be offended. Though, as I said, I'm only 2 hours in so I could be very wrong in the long run. (If so, may Christ forgive me, or may I at least endure my deserved punishment with dignity...)
Performance-wise, I have no major complaints but I'm playing on a decent machine (i9-12900F/3080ti) and I'm using a 60 FPS cap. Even so, there are occasional hitches where the game has split-second freezes -- nothing game-breaking or frequent, but there will be a hiccup every few minutes. Graphically, I think it looks great; not quite as refined as Witcher 3, and the world is zone-based rather than seamlessly open, but still the art direction is pretty sweet (or convincingly crappy where it needs to be).
I sprang for the deluxe edition mainly because I wanted to see the PDF world book that it includes, and while I haven't read it all because I wanted to actually play the game and avoid too many spoilers, it's fascinating and has some great back story for the 8 or so pages I've checked out. Considering that the deluxe edition is still cheaper than most mainstream games and also includes extra cosmetic gear and a downloadable soundtrack, it's worth considering (and I often skip deluxe editions).
That's about all I can say so far. Short summary: if you're willing to drop 40 or 50 bucks on the twisted mutant baby of The Witcher 3 and L.A. Noire, here's your chance.
UPDATES 2/13/2024:
I inadvertently left out an important detail in my initial review: I am playing at 1080p. And it turns out that even at that resolution, the game sometimes dips to around 42 FPS. It's not frequent, but it happens.
Leave the game paused too long and your character may (or may not) enter a mode where black smoke rises endlessly from the ground around him and you need to reboot the game.
When the game says "stall for time", that's a hint that in the ensuing dialogue, you need to choose the options that stall for time.
Overall, still enjoying the game, though the visits to the Unworld are a little too frequent for my tastes.